Allen Johnson
The New Year has arrived and I’m ready to get the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Pro Stock season started. We’ve been testing the Mopar®/J&J Racing Dodge Stratus R/T this week at the drag strip in West Palm Beach, Fla., working with Johnny Gray’s team to make sure both crews jell correctly beginning at the first event in Pomona. With our new two-team set up Johnny and I will be sharing data, so it’s important we have both cars set up as close to identical as possible. It’s also critical both teams develop a good rapport with one another so we can work together smoothly come race day.
Right before we left for West Palm we had a big shindig for my parents on Jan. 17 in honor of their 50th wedding anniversary. Half a century together is an awesome accomplishment, especially in this day and age. My dad, Roy, also provides the HEMI® engines for our team, so he didn’t have much time to enjoy the party. We had to head out later that same night for the trip to West Palm.
Having a week-long series of tests gives us a great opportunity to really concentrate on different aspects of the car each day. First we concentrated on dialing in the chassis, then after that we’ll spend a few days testing some new Mopar HEMI engines that dad wants to put through their paces.
After a brief trip home to the shop in Greeneville, Tenn. for any needed repairs and equipment, I’ll head with the team to Las Vegas for the Pro Stock Superbowl, which is scheduled to take place on Jan. 30–31. We’ll stay over at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for another couple of days of final testing then we’ll be off to Pomona for the season-opening NHRA Winternationals on Feb. 5–8.
That first event is always fun, to get back in race mode and gear up for the long road ahead—24 NHRA national events. It’s a grind, but I love it. I really want to set a good tone at Pomona to jump start our season all the way to the Pro Stock title. That’s the ultimate goal, of course, and we’re going to do everything to make it happen.